Backup a S3 bucket | Plakar | The Open Standard for Backup and Restore

Last reviewed: 2025-12-17 / Plakar v1.0.6

This tutorial explains how to configure the Plakar S3 source integration to back up an existing S3 bucket to an already configured Kloset Store. You’ll learn how to install the integration, set up your credentials, build the correct bucket URL for your provider, and run backups.

1. Install the S3 integration

Before using S3 as a source, you need to install the Plakar S3 integration. You can do this in two ways:

Option A — Install from pre-built packages

Installing the pre-built packages hosted on Plakar’s infrastructure requires you to be logged in. See Unlocking Features with plakar login to learn how to log in.

Then, run:

1plakar pkg add s3

Option B — Build locally

To build the S3 integration locally, run the following commands:

1plakar pkg build s3
2plakar pkg add ./s3_vx.y.z_darwin_arm64.ptar

⚠️ Adapt the filename to match the package file generated by plakar pkg build.

Because the S3 integration is a Go-based package, the build process requires a working Go toolchain to be installed.

2. Get your bucket credentials

You will need the following credentials from your S3 provider:

Access Key ID
Secret Access Key

3. Build your bucket URL

Most S3-compatible providers do not show you the full s3://… address in their web UI—you’ll need to construct it yourself based on your bucket name, host/region, and (sometimes) port or path.

You’ll use this URL in the next step to configure your Plakar S3 source.

Depending on your provider, use one of these formats:

AWS S3

1# Region-specific endpoint:
2s3://s3.<REGION>.amazonaws.com/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/mybucket

MinIO

1# Custom host & port:
2s3://<MINIO_HOST>:<PORT>/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://localhost:9000/mybucket

Scaleway

1# Region-specific endpoint:
2s3://s3.<REGION>.scw.cloud/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://s3.fr-par.scw.cloud/mybucket

Backblaze

1# Region-specific endpoint:
2s3://s3.<REGION>.backblazeb2.com/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://s3.us-west-001.backblazeb2.com/mybucket

CleverCloud

1# Fixed endpoint for CleverCloud Cellar:
2s3://cellar-c2.services.clever-cloud.com/<BUCKET>
3# Example:
4s3://cellar-c2.services.clever-cloud.com/mybucket

Infomaniak

1# Customize Location: swiss-backup02, 03, 04, etc.:
2s3://s3.swiss-backup0X.infomaniak.com/<BUCKET>
3where <Bucket> is 'default' by default
4# Example:
5s3://s3.swiss-backup04.infomaniak.com/default

4. Configure the s3 source

1# Add a store (name it anything — here we use "mys3")
2plakar source add mys3 <YOUR_S3_URL> access_key=<YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_ID> secret_access_key=<YOUR_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY>
3
4# If running MinIO locally without TLS:
5plakar source set mys3 use_tls=false

5. Run your backup

Once your S3 source is configured, trigger a backup of your bucket with:

1plakar at @myrepo backup @mys3

This assumes you already have a Kloset Store named @myrepo.